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Saturday, 25 July 2015

Thanks to the person who sent me this link. Yes, I have seen it. In case you wonder what the description says:"Russianscientists were ableto videotapethe colossalsquid(Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni).Interviewswith specialistsof the Russian ResearchInstitute of Fisheriesand OceanographyIvanIstominand AlexanderVagin: http: //polit.ru/news/2013/03/25/ps_co ..."

And you wonder why I have no wish to go into any ocean or sea?Here is the Russian article -a very poor English translation follows:

Russian scientists have been able to remove the video colossal squidKraken. The engraving of the XIX century

Video: Ivan Istomin / FSUE VNIRO

In
early 2013, world media reported that Japanese scientists in
collaboration with Discovery Channel for the first time managed to take
video of a living giant squid length of about three meters. But
it turns out that Russian scientists from the All-Russian Research
Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography for several years stored
deep-video monster, whom they met in Antarctic waters. The correspondent of "Polit.ru" met with the experts of the Institute Ivan Istomin and Alexander Vagin to find out more.Under what circumstances did you meet with this creature?Alexander Vagin: It happened in January 2008, the D'Urville Sea off the coast of Antarctica. We
worked on the South Korean fishing vessel as international observers
ANTKON (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living
Resources) during the toothfish fishery. It is a large valuable deep-water fish, which is found in Antarctic seas and reaches a length of up to two meters. Catch it with the bottom-line. This durable synthetic rope length of several kilometers with loads to
which the hooks are attached to the streamer line with pieces of squid
or small fish as bait.A. Vagin (left) and Ivan Istomin (center) weighed toothfishIvan Istomin: The day we chose the lines set at a depth of about six kilometers. At some point on the hook to the side came close copy of toothfish, whose body tightly entangled huge squid tentacles. He
appeared several times larger than their victim, and was at first
light, and then change the color to bright red as the underwater part of
our ship. By happy coincidence I had a camera with me and I had to remove this thing. Also very lucky with the weather - sunny windless days in these parts are not so often.As a team reacted? Probably not every day have to face such a catch.A
.: The sailors, among whom were Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesians
began to shout loudly in a strange language, swing hooks in every way to
"save" the toothfish. When they were able to pick up the fish, squid released its prey and plunged into the water for a few meters. Then he came up again, sticking out of the water of the fin. Colour it at this time has become more faint. Then the squid turned and slowly began to sink, making the so-called
fin undulating movement, which is perfectly visible in the video.You were able to determine the size of the squid?Colossal squid tentacle of toothfish stomach. Photo by Ivan IstominA .: When the fish on deck, we have carefully studied it. It was a really big specimen length of 178 centimeters and weighing 65 kilograms. Comparing
the size of the fish and squid in the photo, we determined that it has
the mantle of about four meters in length and not less than half a meter
in diameter. Overall length, apparently, was more than five meters. Usually, squid tentacles, four pairs of short-hand and a pair of long hunting. In our sample have been separated long tentacles. Most likely, he lost them in a fight with a predator. Before that its overall size could reach 8-10 meters.Yes, really huge. Not so long ago off the coast of Japan captured on camera squid length of 3 meters.I.I
.: Here is immediately clear that the nature shared by two kinds of
large clams: Giant squid (Architeuthis) and colossal squid with a single
representative (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). The one instance that the Japanese took off in their natural habitat, belong to the first race, and our - to the second. In fact colossal squid is quite well understood, but it seems that this was bigger than many previously studied.And what if this was the fish? Kalmar caused her any damage?The traces left by squid for toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni). Photo by Ivan IstominA .: All toothfish body was covered with traces of suckers, the largest of which reaches three centimeters in diameter. In the dorsal fin torn piece of meat kilogram two - to three of the spine. At the same time the fish was still alive.Do you regret that it was not possible to catch the most squid?I.I
.: Captain Korean vessel had not seen the episode, and then strongly
criticized that the rescue team took the catch and pulled the squid on
the deck. On the one hand, we as a scientist would be interesting to study this creature in detail. But then we did not get great shots of his movement. So we are sorry that it was not possible to observe squid longer.You regularly participate in marine expeditions, including work on fishing vessels. Are you aware of other instances of meeting with huge squid?The beak of the squid, extracted from the stomach of toothfish. Photo by Ivan IstominA .: The attack on the big squid hooked toothfish - not a rare phenomenon. In
some areas of Antarctica where fishing is carried out, up to 10% of
fish caught are traces of suckers and the wounds inflicted by "beak"
squid. But usually they let their prey even in the depths, so the meeting was living giants are very rare. However, due to the peculiarities of biology of squid, scientists are able to study their remains. The fact that these creatures are monocyclic. That is, having reached a certain age, they produce offspring, and die shortly thereafter. After that they were either washed ashore or they become food of various marine predators. We often found in the stomach of the same toothfish tentacles up to
two meters or pieces of mantle thickness of a few centimeters.I.I .: In other words, the dead squid studied well enough. But to see a live giant squid, much less shoot it on video in such good weather conditions it is possible only rarely! Although among the sailors always been a lot of stories.And about some instances have you heard?Detail of squid tentacles. Photo by Ivan IstominI.I .: As you know, the largest giant squid Architeuthis instance was found on the shores of New Zealand. Its length, along with hunting tentacles was 17.4 meters. Among the fishermen hear stories about how, together with the caught fish raised a monster longer than two dozen meters. It is difficult to judge whether it's true or only fiction sea. But
it is known that sperm whales on the skins, which are actively consume
squid as food, they found the marks of suction cups diameter of several
tens of centimeters. If
we consider that our sample with a length of about five meters mantle
had three-centimeter sucker, these stories do not seem too fantastic. No matter how long we may have studied the ocean, it will continue to hide from us its secrets.Reference:Giant
and colossal squid are not only the largest invertebrate on the planet,
but in second place after the sperm whale among the largest predators. Many experts believe that these creatures spawned legends of sea monster Kraken, which first appeared in Icelandic folklore. If
Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni colossal squid is found only in the southern
seas off the coast of Antarctica, giant squid Architeuthis genus are
found almost all over the world's oceans. Until recently it was assumed that the genus of giant squid has at least 8 species. But recent genetic research, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, showed that it is not. The scientists analyzed the DNA of 43 species of giant squid found in different parts of the planet. Differences in the genome were so insignificant that all individuals turned out to belong to the same species.

Thursday, 23 July 2015

This artist's concept compares Earth (left) to the new planet, called Kepler-452b, which is about 60 percent larger in diameter.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

This size and scale of the Kepler-452 system
compared alongside the Kepler-186 system and the solar system.
Kepler-186 is a miniature solar system that would fit entirely inside
the orbit of Mercury.

Credits: NASA/JPL-CalTech/R. Hurt

There are 4,696 planet candidates now known with
the release of the seventh Kepler planet candidate catalog - an increase
of 521 since the release of the previous catalog in January 2015.

Credits: NASA/W. Stenzel

Since Kepler launched in 2009, twelve planets less
than twice the size of Earth have been discovered in the habitable zones
of their stars.

Credits: NASA/N. Batalha and W. Stenzel

This artist's concept depicts one possible
appearance of the planet Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth-size world to
be found in the habitable zone of star that is similar to our sun.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet
in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the
introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark
another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date
discovered orbiting in the habitable zone -- the area around a star
where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet -- of
a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings
the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

"On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns
host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and
star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun," said John
Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This exciting result
brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0."

Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is
considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are
not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of
Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.

While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5
percent longer. The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star
Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun. Kepler-452 is 6 billion years
old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and
is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger.

“We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin
to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon
Earth’s evolving environment," said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis
lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, who
led the team that discovered Kepler-452b. "It’s awe-inspiring to
consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable
zone of its star; longer than Earth. That’s substantial opportunity for
life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for
life exist on this planet.”

To help confirm the finding and better determine the properties of
the Kepler-452 system, the team conducted ground-based observations at
the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory, the Fred
Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the W. M. Keck
Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. These measurements were key for
the researchers to confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-452b, to
refine the size and brightness of its host star and to better pin down
the size of the planet and its orbit.

The Kepler-452 system is located 1,400 light-years away in the
constellation Cygnus. The research paper reporting this finding has been
accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.

In addition to confirming Kepler-452b, the Kepler team has increased
the number of new exoplanet candidates by 521 from their analysis of
observations conducted from May 2009 to May 2013, raising the number of
planet candidates detected by the Kepler mission to 4,696. Candidates
require follow-up observations and analysis to verify they are actual
planets.

Twelve of the new planet candidates have diameters between one to two
times that of Earth, and orbit in their star's habitable zone. Of
these, nine orbit stars that are similar to our sun in size and
temperature.

“We've been able to fully automate our process of identifying planet
candidates, which means we can finally assess every transit signal in
the entire Kepler dataset quickly and uniformly,” said Jeff Coughlin,
Kepler scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who
led the analysis of a new candidate catalog. “This gives astronomers a
statistically sound population of planet candidates to accurately
determine the number of small, possibly rocky planets like Earth in our
Milky Way galaxy.”

These findings, presented in the seventh Kepler Candidate Catalog,
will be submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. These
findings are derived from data publically available on the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

Scientists now are producing the last catalog based on the original
Kepler mission’s four-year data set. The final analysis will be
conducted using sophisticated software that is increasingly sensitive to
the tiny telltale signatures of Earth-size planets.

Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission
Directorate. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,
managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory
for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in
Boulder.

In a teleonference at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) tomorrow, the space
agency will announce new findings made by the planet-hunting Kepler
Space Telescope.

You can tune in to the announcement live via
an online audio feed provided by NASA. A statement from NASA announcing
the teleconference did not provide any additional details as to what
new information will be unveiled.

"Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the
realm of science fiction just 21 years ago," according to the NASA
statement. "Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are
on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands
of years -- another Earth."

Participants in the teleconference will be John Grunsfeld, an associate
administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington; Jon
Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in
Moffett Field, California; Jeff Coughlin, a Kepler research scientist at
the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California; and Didier Queloz, a
professor of astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, United
Kingdom.

The $600 million Kepler Space Telescope
launched in 2009 with the goal of studying the diversity of planet
systems in the Milky Way galaxy. In addition, the mission aimed to find
rocky, Earth-like planets orbiting their parent stars at a distance
where liquid water could form (the so-called "habitable zone," or
"Goldilocks zone").

The telescope detects planets with the so-called "transit" method: When
a planet passes in front of its parent star, partially blocking its
light, Kepler observes the tiny dip in the star's brightness. Kepler has
detected 4,661 planet candidates, of which 1,028 have been confirmed.

In May 2013, Kepler ended the first phase of its mission when the
second of four "reaction wheels" failed on the spacecraft. The reaction
wheels are devices resembling a gyroscope that maintain Kepler's
position in space.

The $600 million Kepler Space Telescope
launched in 2009 with the goal of studying the diversity of planet
systems in the Milky Way galaxy. In addition, the mission aimed to find
rocky, Earth-like planets orbiting their parent stars at a distance
where liquid water could form (the so-called "habitable zone," or
"Goldilocks zone").

The telescope detects planets with the so-called "transit" method: When
a planet passes in front of its parent star, partially blocking its
light, Kepler observes the tiny dip in the star's brightness. Kepler has
detected 4,661 planet candidates, of which 1,028 have been confirmed.

In May 2013, Kepler ended the first phase of its mission when the
second of four "reaction wheels" failed on the spacecraft. The reaction
wheels are devices resembling a gyroscope that maintain Kepler's
position in space.

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

The Red Paper

The research took almost 40 years on some aspects (starting in 1977) and
if there is one book I have to hold up and momentarily get an ego over
it is this one. Wolves, foxes -including arctic foxes- Jackals and
coyotes in the UK. Many exotics just released to hunt or simply
dumped/escapees.

The history of foxes in the UK and how they were about
to become extinct (there may be no such thing as a true "British fox"
now) but were imported in their thousands each year "for sport" -even I
sat dumbfounded when I made certain discoveries such as stabling foxes,
what "bagging a fox" REALLY meant and more.

One naturalist of 60 years
read it and called it "The most explosive book on British wildlife ever"
and yet, not a single copy has ever sold.

And my old colleagues at the British Naturalist Association....I like to call them "the opposition" now.

Up-dated 2011 edition includes
section on sarcoptic mange in foxes and treatment plus a list of
wildlife sanctuaries and rescue centres in the UK.
By the 1700s the British fox was on the verge of extinction and about to
follow the bear and wolf having been hunted for sport for centuries.
The answer was to import thousands of foxes per year for sport. But
foxes kept dying out so jackals were tried. Some were caught, some
escaped. Even wolves and coyote were released for hunting.

The summation of decades of work (1977-2011 and still ongoing) and research reveals the damnable lie of
"pest control" hunting but also reveals the cruelty the animals were
subject to and how private menageries as well as travelling shows helped
provide the British and Irish countryside with some incredible events.

I note a few "there was a reason they called it the 'Dark Ages'" items going around Face Book -all accompanied by images of Inquisitors going about their very unholy business. Yes, the Church did it's part but that was a minute part -but it seems people love church-bashing and blaming it for every historical bit of badness.

There were other reasons and I've mentioned these in my books and other articles over the last 25-30 years (it may be longer but I'm not keeping count!). For instance, the Italian historian Flavius Cassiodorus wrote about conditions that he experienced during the year AD 536:

"The Sun...seems to have lost its wonted light, and appears of a bluish colour. We marvel to see no shadows of our bodies at noon, to feel the mighty vigour of the Sun's heat wasted into feebleness, and the phenomena which accompany an eclipse prolonged through almost a whole year. We have had a summer without heat. The crops have been chilled by north winds, [and] the rain is denied."

And he was not alone in writing about this:

Procopius : "...during this year a most dread portent took
place. For the Sun gave forth its light without brightness...and it seemed
exceedingly like the Sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear."

Lydus : "The Sun became dim...for nearly the whole year...so that
the fruits were killed at an unseasonable time."

Michael the Syrian : "The Sun became dark and its darkness lasted
for eighteen months. Each day it shone for about four hours, and still
this light was only a feeble shadow...the fruits did not ripen and the
wine tasted like sour grapes."

In China it was reported that "the stars were lost from view for three months"

In accounts of "ancient UFO sightings" you will find a number referring to fiery discs and that this was "at the time of the great plague". The Plague of Justinian, as it was called by scholars. The Plague got its name from the Byzantine Emperor of the time, Justinian, and it is reported
to have begun somewhere in central Asia, spread across into Egypt before making its way into Europe. According to some accounts,the Plague of Justinian, was as bad as the Black Death which ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages.
No one was safe from the plague, the famine or the extreme -scientists, writers or others. It really was a "dark age" -blame the Church for a lot but not this. As we see, Flavius was writing in the 6th century. And the twelfth century BC is associated with the "Greek Dark Ages" and looking at historical records, experts have estimated that some forty (40) cities throughout North Africa, the Middle East, Europe,
and Asia were devastated and even disappeared at about
the same time due to a series of catastrophes.Those are great cities we know of.

Luckily, a very interesting article by Greg Bryant* has been preserved on the internet -see, it is good for some things. In this article, Bryant deals with the subject in much more detail and I really do recommend that you read it.

People seem to be confusing historical periods because The Holy Inquisition and so on was at a much later date -starting in the 12th century A.D..
And with all the phenomena reported back in the early dark ages I totally agree with the theory that a comet and comet tail -that many believe the Earth passed through (see Professors Fred Hoyle and
Chandra Wickramasinghe's excellent book Diseases From Space)or asteroid breaking up was behind a great deal of those troubled times.

I have mentioned over the years that a lot of things we used to know has been lost -pre-Viking era visitors using a known and charted route to what is now the Southern United States. Roman statuette found in Arizona, Pineapple depicted on the wall of a Pompeiian home and much more. Coastal cities and island cities we may consider legends/myths -if we have even heard of them- were lost to the sea in catastrophes. The " Amazon" was once home to a huge population before Europeans arrived and spread disease.

Above all else, though, we need to get our time periods right.
__________________________________________________________________________
* The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined? Bryant, Greg, Universe, September, 1999 http://gchbryant.tripod.com/Articles/darkages0999.htm

Monday, 6 July 2015

I'm sorry but this is quite explosive but it just gets a short Yahoo news item! Prof. Wickramasinghe is no new, clean shaven fella out to make a name for himself. Along with Sir Fred Hoyle he wrote the excellent Diseases From Space (1979), Evolution From Space (1981) and Life On Mars? (1997) along with many other books.

How ridiculous that organisations who send probes out into space to "learn" bicker over money and decide not to equip probes with something that might just show us that there is 100% "life out there!"

Evidence of alien life is "unequivocal" on the comet carrying the Philae probe through space, two leading astronomers have said.

The experts say the most likely explanation for certain features of the
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, such as its organic-rich black crust,
is the presence of living organisms beneath an icy surface.
Rosetta, the European spacecraft orbiting the comet, is also said to
have picked up strange "clusters" of organic material that resemble
viral particles.

But neither Rosetta nor its lander probe, Philae, are equipped to
search for direct evidence of life after a proposal to include this in
the mission was allegedly dismissed.

Astronomer and astrobiologist Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, who was
involved in planning for the mission 15 years ago, said: "I wanted to
include a very inexpensive life-detection experiment. At the time it was
thought this was a bizarre proposition."

He and colleague Dr Max Wallis, from the University of Cardiff, believe
67P and other comets like it could provide homes for living microbes
similar to the "extremophiles" that inhabit the most inhospitable
regions of the Earth.

They say comets may have helped to sow the seeds of life on Earth and
possibly other planets such as Mars early in the solar system's
existence.

Philae failed to attach itself to the surface of Comet 67P after being
dropped by mothership Rosetta in November, and bounced several times
before landing in the shade.

After being forced into hibernation by the lack of sunlight reaching its solar panels, scientists were euphoric when it began "waking up"
as the comet raced towards the sun. It is currently about 176.7 million
miles from Earth and travelling at more than 73,000 mph.

It has a black hydrocarbon crust overlaying ice, smooth icy "seas", and
flat-bottomed craters containing "lakes" of re-frozen water overlain
with organic debris.

Prof Wickramasinghe said: "What we're saying is that data coming from
the comet seems to unequivocally, in my opinion, point to
micro-organisms being involved in the formation of the icy structures,
the preponderance of aromatic hydrocarbons, and the very dark surface.

"These are not easily explained in terms of pre-biotic chemistry.

"The dark material is being constantly replenished as it is boiled off
by heat from the Sun. Something must be doing that at a fairly prolific
rate."

Another tantalising find was the discovery of organic "particle clusters" by Rosetta in the gases surrounding the comet, which resembled viral particles collected from the Earth's upper atmosphere.

"They might be viral particles," said Prof Wickramasinghe.

"The current estimate for the number of extra-solar planets in the
galaxy is 140 billion plus. Planets that can harbour life are really
quite abundant in the galaxy, and the next neighbouring system to us is
only spitting distance away. I think it's inevitable that life is going
to be a cosmic phenomenon.

"Five hundred years ago it was a struggle to have people accept that
the Earth was not the centre of the universe. After that revolution our
thinking has remained Earth-centred in relation to life and biology.

"It's deeply ingrained in our scientific culture and it will take a lot of evidence to kick it over."

I am referring to Michael Teal who became a member on the AOP site and has not TWICE tried spamming by telling people to contact him about "REAL" paranormal and stuff. I'm told he has done this elsewhere.

Moronic spamming achieves -nothing.

I might normally ask why he finds factual reporting, as on AOP, not to be discussing "REAL" paranormal and Bigfoot but to be honest if you do this kind of spamming once it is removed. Twice -and actually writing that it is you "again" -banned/blocked.

We had, a few months back, the revellation that an early Bible stated God (the Christian god), like other gods, had a wife. No one has really seen the collapse of civilisation....well, not in the way some might expect.

Now, if genuine and there seems no reason to call it untrue yet, we are told that Jesus was NOT crucified. I leave the arguing over that to the more religious minded -and expert! It would be interesting to see what Western scholars make of this.
*******************************************************************************

1500 Year Old Bible Claims Jesus Christ Was Not Crucified – Vatican In Awe

Much to the dismay of the Vatican, an approx. 1500-2000 year old bible was found in Turkey, in the Ethnography Museum of Ankara.
Discovered and kept secret in the year 2000, the book contains the
Gospel of Barnabas – a disciple of Christ – which shows that Jesus was
not crucified, nor was he the son of God, but a Prophet.

The
book also calls Apostle Paul “The Impostor”. The book also claims that
Jesus ascended to heaven alive, and that Judas Iscariot was crucified in
his place.

The report states the gang was charged with smuggling antiquities,
illegal excavations, and the possession of explosives. The books itself
is valued as high as 40 Million Turkish Liras (approx. 28 mil. Dollars).
Man, where is the Thieves Guild, when you need them?

Authenticity

According to reports, experts and religious authorities in Tehram insist
that the book is original. The book itself is written with gold
lettering, onto loosely-tied leather in Aramaic, the language of Jesus
Christ.

The text maintains a vision similar to Islam, contradicting the New
Testament's teachings of Christianity. Jesus also foresees the coming of
the Prophet Muhammad, who would found Islam 700 years later.

It is believed that, during the Council of Nicea,
the Catholic Church hand-picked the gospels that form the Bible as we
know it today; omitting the Gospel of Barnabas (among many others) in
favor of the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Many biblical texts have begun to surface over time, including those of
the Dead Sea and Gnostic Gospels; but this book especially, seems to
worry the Vatican.

The Catholic Church wants in

What does this mean to Christian-derived religions and their followers?
Quite a tight spot. The Vatican has asked Turkish authorities to let
them examine the contents of the book within the Church. Now that the
book has been found, will they come to accept the it and its evidence?
Will they deny it altogether? Call it a “Muslim lie”, as did the “Truth”
Magazine, in 2000?

To many, this book is a beacon of hope, that believers soon realize that
the object of their adoration is arbitrary; and that all text,
especially religious text, is subject to interpretation.

What does this mean to atheists/agnostics/secular thinkers? Is the text real? Fake? Does it matter?